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I'm making a speculative kit list for a build I'm planning over the long term. The frame wil most likely be a Sonder Broken Road (or similar) and used for bikepacking/xc/family cruising.
I have no idea about what is out there for bars/stems/seatposts. I am keen to avoid getting cheap and heavy, but also not to keen on superlight racing type stuff. I'm not really sure what to budget, but don't really know where to start looking to figure out the cost/weight/strength benefits of various kit.
I know this is all a bit vague and I'm not expecting a definitive answer, but does anyone have any sugestions of where to start looking?
Oh yeah, and I'm looking for something fairly understated in appearance, so no huge garish logos or mad coloured anodised stuff please.
to be honest most decent alloy stuff is barely any heavier than its carbon equivalent and costs considerably less. Ritchey WCS, WCS trail and Easton EA70 are always good markers as is the Fizik alloy stuff
KCNC do some nice bits.
Thanks both!
Used Thompson stems and seatposts come up pretty regularly for sale at reasonable prices and are decent and discrete kit too.
Kalloy UNO stems, c£20 from eBay, as light as you’ll get without spending silly money, nail varnish remover to get rid of the hideous graphics.
Hylix for Carbon seatpost, again eBay. I think I paid around £40 for one, 27.2x400mm came in around 165g
I spent ages looking at weights when I built up my road bike. Without spending lots Ritchey wcs won. Also nice getting matching stuff.
Would like to try vibrocore on the bars for the gravel bike though.
Ribble was best for price back then, and they had weights of everything. Not sure if they still are/do.
Exotic carbon seatposts: https://www.carboncycles.cc/?p=797&
Prime race saddle with carbon rails: https://www.wiggle.co.uk/prime-race-saddle-carbon-rails/ I find it very comfortable and mine is bang on the claimed 200g. I've also had some luck trawling Planet X/Merlin sales for light saddles with big discounts.
Not relevant for OP, but for road stuff PRO lite alloy handlebars are good value for the weight.
Kalloy uno stem. Go on Ali express and they do an 11-50T cassette that's less than 400g for £60
Second hand carbon bars, nukeproof horizon pedals. Pretty easy to get bike weight down cheap if you're patient.
I rebuilt my steel cotic soul into a more xc bike last year and it's 25lb now with a steel frame.
+1 for KCNC and Mt Zoom bars, stems and seatposts
Saddles San Marco for around 200g in weight with a few options in styles available.
Darimo for very light but expensive kit
I've always liked Deda for finishing kit. Seems to be a good balance of quality, light weight and price.
How wide bars are you after? I've got some really light carbon bars that are too narrow for me. About 720mm
My rigid 29er has RitcheyWCS flat ally bars and a Uno stem(as mentioned above complete with the shit graphics removed) both are pretty light (stem is circa 100gms for a 50mm length).
My default has always been used Thomson seatpost and stems and new Mt Zoom bars (I just don'tfancy used carbon for some reason) Sensible prices, light and so far indestructable across several bikes.